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Natural weather, soil burial and sea water ageing of low‐density polyethylene: Effect of starch/linear low‐density polyethylene masterbatch
Author(s) -
Elanmugilan M.,
Sreekumar P. A.,
Singha N. K.,
AlHarthi Mamdouh A.,
De S. K.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.38769
Subject(s) - low density polyethylene , crystallinity , materials science , starch , masterbatch , polyethylene , scanning electron microscope , composite material , ageing , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , chemical engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , nanocomposite , biology , genetics , engineering
Degradation of the blends of low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) with a starch‐based additive namely, polystarch N was studied under various environmental conditions such as natural weather, soil and sea water in Saudi Arabia. Stress–strain properties and thermal behavior were investigated for the LDPE and LDPE/polystarch N blend having 40% (w/w) of polystarch N. Environmental ageing resulted in the reduction of percentage of elongation and crystallinity for the blend. Rheological studies and scanning electron microscope photomicrographs of the polymer samples retrieved after ageing showed that addition of polystarch N enhanced the degradation of LDPE. This is ascribed to high extent of chain scission and leaching out of starch present in polystarch N, which was corroborated by the results of morphology and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses. In the case of underground soil ageing, microbes present in the soil consume the starch in the blend, thus accelerating the degradation process. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013